[Vision2020] Saying goodbye to Pullman

[Moscow Cares]

Although not a member of Rev. Rivetti's congregation, I have always admired and respected her.

Rev. Rivetti speaking before the Moscow Human Relations Committee . . .
http://youtu.be/5agxsBIvNtY

Courtesy of today's (March 1, 2016) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Saying goodbye to Pullman
Rev. Mary Beth Rivetti will leave her congregation of 13 years
Rev. Mary Beth Rivetti has been blessing St. James Episcopal Church and the city of Pullman for the past 13 years, but as she drives away today, she’s not sure when she will see these rolling hills again.

Part of the protocol for the retirement of an Episcopal priest means completely relocating from the congregation’s parish and the city in which it resides.

“I need to give this congregation plenty of room to look for my successor,” Rivetti said. “And also, I need to give myself space to do the work I need to do to no longer be a priest.”

The 65-year-old Pullman resident is the first to admit that she got a bit of a late start to her career within Episcopal ministries.

“I was in my mid-40s and people had been pushing me for well over 10 years,” she said. “I came to an understanding that I was called into this ministry.”

Rivetti graduated from seminary and received her first call when she was 50 years old.

Before she was drawn to seminary school, she attended the University of California-Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley.

“I was a major in classics,” she said. “I had a bachelor’s and master’s in that and then I was working toward a Ph.D. ... I did all the class work but never finished the degree.”

Rivetti ended up working for a college textbook publishing company as a sales representative. She traveled to Utah for field experience and very quickly realized that the position wasn’t for her. Utah, though, turned out to be exactly what she needed, and it continued to be her home for 15 years.

When Rivetti quit the textbook publishing company, she also quit drinking.

“I’ll be coming up on 30 years of continuous sobriety,” she said. “So, Utah had a great place of healing for me and almost spiritual rebirth.”

Utah was largely part of Rivetti’s journey that brought her full circle to answering her call to the Episcopal Church.

“When I first showed up in seminary, my first class, it felt as if my whole life I had been waiting for that,” she said. “Everything I had done suddenly made sense.”

It was also the church that introduced her to her late husband, George.

“I had given up ever getting married, and he came with four kids,” Rivetti said while smiling. “It was an amazing life we had.”

Rivetti, as the granddaughter of two Episcopal priests, was raised in a family that regularly attended church. She remembers running around the rectory as a child, and she has watched other children grow up in the church as well. She has seen all phases of life at St. James.

“There are children I met when they were first born, and I prayed with their parents at Pullman Regional Hospital and blessed them, brought them here and baptized them, and have grown up together,” Rivetti said. “There are people I’ve gotten to know and people who I’ve struggled with and people who have struggled with me.”

Rivetti’s husband died in 2009 while she was with St. James. The community watched and helped as much as they could through his decline, she said.

“People backed me up, took turns preaching for me,” she said. “He’s buried out here.”

Rivetti said the passion of the people in the ministry will be the hardest part of moving on.

“I don’t feel half as sorrowful leaving the rectory behind as I do just leaving these memories and this congregation,” she said. “I will continue to serve the broader church in a different role, but I won’t ever serve a congregation again, watching the development of a core group of people who are growing in faith together.”

It is with the words surrounding the baptismal font of St. James that Rivetti will continue her journey of kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, love, joy, peace and patience.

She will work with the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane as a visiting substitute priest and will mentor a recently ordained priest and be involved in the process of electing the next bishop.

“We’re part of this grand procession. We step in, we’re here and then we’re gone,” she said.

As she leaves the congregation, Rivetti said she remembers her exploration of being called to the area.

“There had been snow on the shocks of wheat coming out of the black earth, and the drivers (members of the congregation) were telling us how much better this place looks in the spring,” she said. “My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘this place is beautiful.’ ”

Tears filled Rivetti’s eyes as she reminisced of the offerings of the Palouse and the ways it became her home.

Rivetti said she fully expects the congregation to welcome and embrace its next priest with love and generosity of spirit.

“The congregation needs someone with greater energy,” she said.

Rivetti also said when her successor feels grounded and centered, she may visit with his or her invitation.

“This place really gets into your bones,” she said. “I have spent my lifetime saying goodbye after five or 10 years, and I will be saying goodbye here. It will be very hard to leave Pullman, and I just keep memorizing bits and pieces of it as I drive away.”

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Pastor Mary Beth Rivetti chats with parishioners at her retirement reception Saturday at St. James Episcopal Church in Pullman.

http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Pullman/Rev_Mary_Beth_Rivetti.jpg

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To Rev. Rivetti I bid a hearty . . .

"Happy Trails to You"
http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Happy_Trails.mp3

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" 
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
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